AGARTALA, July 23 (TIWN): Centuries-old festival in Tripura called Ker Puja begins in Tripura today. It starts 15 days after Kharchi Puja The area in and around the royal palace here as well as Puran Habeli, the erstwhile capital of Tripura, around 12 km east of this city, have been notified for Ker Puja.

"Ker Puja starts midnight Friday and will continue uninterrupted for over 30 hours, permits no deaths, births or even recreation within a notified area recreation within a notified area. No outsiders are allowed to enter either, and anyone violating the rules has to pay” said the priest.

"The customary rules and conventions of Ker Puja are most strict and not easy to follow. All pregnant women, the diseased and dying are kept out of the specified puja area. No one is allowed to enter the notified area” added the priest.

The puja rituals are carried out at government expense as the Tripura government has been holding good its promise to the state's erstwhile royal family for over six decades to organize the puja."During Ker Puja, all kinds of amusement, recreation and ceremonies are banned in the notified areas," an official notification said, adding security personnel would stand guard outside the area to maintain the dignity of the puja and the directives of the government.

Besides the Ker Puja in Agartala and Puran Habeli, also known as old Agartala, rituals take place in almost all tribal villages towards the end of the year or at the end of the harvesting season.The literal meaning of 'Ker' in tribal Kokborok language is a specified area. Time-honoured beliefs lie behind the ritualistic invocation during the festival. A structure constructed with green bamboo poles serves as the deity for Ker Puja. The 'chantais', or head priest, is regarded as the king on the occasion.

At the end of the 517-year rule by 184 kings, Oct 15, 1949, the erstwhile princely state of Tripura came under the control of the Government of India, according to a merger agreement signed with Kanchan Prabha Devi, then regent maharani. The agreement made it obligatory for the Tripura government to continue the sponsorship of temples, pujas and festivals earlier organized by the royals. And it continues to this day.